Plus One Lap is all about Cyclocross. The bikes, the mud, the culture. The largest galleries of lightweight cyclocross bikes and custom handmade bikes on the web.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Dual Gallery Bike: Jeff's True North

Here's one for both galleries, as it's under 18 lb and handmade/custom. True North Cycles is a local builder who does super work and has built me steel mtb and road frames before I got the cross bike.

The ride is fantastic, with a stiff rear end for putting the power down but enough compliance to pop out of corners like only Ti can. I went for a very low BB (70mm BB drop) and though I clipped a pedal a few times in practice at first, the cornering benefits are very worthwhile in my mind.

See the attached *.xls for the parts list. The frame comes in at 1596 g, not bad for being a 60 cm x 57 cm, and not your average scandium or monocoque carbon. Total build weight is 17.2 lbs with the Hope Pro3/Velocity Escape wheels. I've got a few wheel options depending on the conditions. I wanted to get it sub 17 lbs, and still can with the right wheels but I'm happy with just over anyway.

Non weight-weenie sacrifices were made for functional (preference) reasons in the Q-ring and Bontrager bar, and for cost cutting in crank and brake selection. That said I'm quite pleased with the weight as is, and don't see many changes ahead. Maybe the BB, since the Race Face was just what I had on hand.